Hot Air Balloons: 2nd Grade

Second grade did a collaborative project with Hot Air Balloons! We looked at the artist David Kracov and imitated his style. Each student drew, colored, painted, and cut out a hot air balloon on a piece of posterboard.

 I had students come up by table and lay their balloon somewhere on the floor overlapping one another. I used pieces of foam to space out the balloons as I attached them (I used masking tape).

I put them all up after school and decided they were missing something. So the next day, I had each student create a cloud! Here is the final product!

Looking back, I wish I had taken the time to cover the board with a blue paper. The final piece is still pretty amazing though! Go second grade!

Kandinsky Circles: 1st Grade

We spent a lot of time in first grade learning our color families! I used this project to drive it all home. We used oil pastels and/or crayons.

Color Families: Primary, Secondary, Neutral, Warm, Cool, Complementary Colors (Y&V, R&G, O&B).

I combined all of the pieces together for the display to achieve a really big wall of circles. The students loved the display!

Kindergarten: Types of Line

I got the idea for this lesson while browsing through the art teacher tag on Instagram. When I see an idea I want to use, I take a screenshot and save it for later. This is the first one that I have I put to use!

This lesson does require some prep, unless you honestly expect kindergartners to be able to use a ruler properly. I used scrap paper from another project. I had cut four inches off of paper for another grade and was left with these 4x12 inch slices of paper. On the short sides of the paper, I picked a width and marked it with lines that would later be connected by my students. This is important so all of the lines will fit next to one another and form one, larger line.

I used a method I learned in printmaking class to mark the papers more quickly.

I started the lesson by asking the students to give me a definition of a line. This discussion guided the class to talking about different types of line. I had a half sheet of computer paper that I put each type of line on, i.e. zig-zag, curvy, wavy, thick, thin, etc.

I then demonstrated the project for the students while they watched around my table.

1. With a black crayon, connect the top dashes with a crazy line.
2. With a black crayon, connect the bottom dashes with a crazy line.
3. Color inside the black lines (the middle) with a black crayon.
4. Use all the other colors on the top and bottom! Make it random, not a "picture."

I demonstrated ALL of the steps for the students until it was through, emphasizing that they needed to color neatly, only use black on the line, etc.

I had students go back to their seats and passed out the papers with the front side down. I instructed students to write their names on the side I put down for them. I then vocally walked the students through all of the steps again. It may be necessary to walk around the room and help some with the line part. A lot of students don't want to color between the dashes, connect the dashes, etc.

As the students finished, I had them bring their lines to me at the back table. I put two pieces of masking tape on the back of their lines, and connected them all on the wall! I wrote the teacher's name on the inside of my line and put it at the very end. The students loved pointing out where their lines were. I'd say it was a pretty successful project.